If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of10 Major GoalsI want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

Another strange, but entirely awesome, week. WOOT!

Creative: I want to finish the knit shrug. Trying this one again. Not yet, but I have joined the second sleeve to be worked in the round so the end is in sight.

Stress Management: I really want to start water aerobics again so I’m going to focus on finding a place. I’m also on vacation this week so I’m going to do my very best to relax. Got in plenty of relaxing, still haven’t for sure found a place to do the water aerobics.

Health: I got some new vitamins, new shampoo/conditioner, and I’m going to try to find a different moisturizer. I need to just get back into taking care of my physical health. Picked up even more vitamins and I’ve been using the new moisturizer every day. I like it even better than the first one.

Financial: I need to make sure that I can cover what’s left for this month including paying for the divorce paperwork. I’ll be selling the Honda so that’ll help. When I sold the Honda I paid off a small loan that I had with Mom, my line of credit at the bank (and then closed it), and my credit card (kept that open for emergencies). I also spent some time looking at what my finances should be now that it’s just me and things will be soooo much more comfortable.

Simplify: I don’t think I really even need this anymore. YAY! Yay!

Goals for this week:

Turns out I do have to report for jury duty, at least tomorrow morning. I’m not pleased by this, but there isn’t much I can do. It does mean that I’m going to try to get some of my work done at home, assuming I can get back into my account. I put in a request to have my name changed back to what it had been before I left on Thursday and they actually did it.

Creative: I want to finish the knit shrug, seriously. It shouldn’t take more than a few more days, tops.

Stress Management: I’m aiming to get back on the treadmill at least 5 times for a minimum of 15 minutes each time.

Health: I really need to get back on the healthy eating bandwagon. There’s been a bit too much crap in my diet lately.

Financial: Even though my situation is more comfortable now, I have got to quit buying shit like I’m loaded.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love to shop? It really doesn’t fit with the whole minimalist thing I’m trying to embrace, I realize that. But I love a good deal. And shiny things.

Part of this whole transition to singleness has involved making over bits of my living space. I felt that I had to really make this area MINE in order to live happily down here. A lot of what I did was remove things, put my things that had been tucked away in a more prominent place, move things around – you get the idea. But I’ve done some shopping, too. And I’ve realized something…

it is entirely different shopping for myself now as an independent single woman than it was shopping for myself as his wife.

Seems a little odd, but it’s true. And I don’t know that I can explain it. So I won’t even try.

Anyway, Mom and I took Grandma shopping yesterday to get a dress for my cousin’s wedding and I scored a great dress.

It’s absolutely stunning and it looks really good on. And it was $9.99. So yeah, I’ve been doing more shopping lately, but I still shop the sales.

Fortunately my sleep situation seems to be truly sorted out. I slept nearly 8 hours last night which is phenomenal. I ate like shit yesterday but I’m hoping since it was a one time kind of thing that it won’t cause any problems. And sadly my right leg has two new lesions that are draining and irritating me. I think part of that issue is different activities lately and me not being properly attired for them.

I’m going to see T-bone this morning. I had set this appointment up when I was in there last time, mostly just thinking since I’d be on vacation it would be a good idea. I’m thinking he’ll be quiet pleasantly surprised to hear about what’s been happening.

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of10 Major GoalsI want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

It definitely wasn’t the week I thought I’d have, but it was pretty fucking awesome.

Creative: I want to finish the knit shrug. No, but I did work on it.

Stress Management: I really REALLY need to get back on the treadmill. I didn’t do this, but I’ve been pretty damn active the last few days.

Health: Skin again. For some reason my hands are just trashed. I sort of did this but not as well as I should have.

Financial: Pay day is tomorrow, time to get serious. It’s amazing how much more money I have available now that I’m truly only paying MY bills.

Simplify: ??? Not sure about this one this week. I got rid of a TON of stuff. I loaded the Jeep full 3 times with stuff we took to Goodwill.

Goals for this week:

Creative: I want to finish the knit shrug. Trying this one again.

Stress Management: I really want to start water aerobics again so I’m going to focus on finding a place. I’m also on vacation this week so I’m going to do my very best to relax.

Health: I got some new vitamins, new shampoo/conditioner, and I’m going to try to find a different moisturizer. I need to just get back into taking care of my physical health.

Financial: I need to make sure that I can cover what’s left for this month including paying for the divorce paperwork. I’ll be selling the Honda so that’ll help.

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of10 Major GoalsI want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

The nicest thing I can say about last week is that it’s over. (I think I said that last week, too.)

Creative: I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. I FINALLY finished the black and white vest and I did make good progress on the knit shrug.

Stress Management: Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 25 minutes minimum. Nope. Because of the severe issues with my legs I only managed one time and only for 10 minutes.

Health: Back to working on a healthier diet. Tomorrow morning I’m trying the soaked chia seed breakfast again with some tweaks. I got the chia breakfast thing figured out and it’s amazing. My diet did some up and down things last week but I managed to lose one pound. So yay.

Financial: I need to look at the budget again, closer, and see where I can make changes. I want to get things paid off. This didn’t happen because of all the medical shit with Josh. I simply didn’t have the energy or inclination.

Simplify: I actually went through my printed patterns last night and got rid of the ones I knew I wouldn’t ever actually make. I think going through the craft supplies is probably my next stop. I don’t have too much excess of anything, except maybe yarn, but if nothing else it’ll refresh my memory of what I’ve got. I didn’t get rid of anything but I was able to straighten up the yarn storage and figure out what all I’ve got.

The challenge is officially over and I officially did not do well. I’m going to keep plugging away at finishing the other two projects. I’m thinking the next time I do this sort of challenge that it’ll be just a little easier, like maybe not shopping for anything but groceries or something.

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of10 Major GoalsI want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

The nicest thing I can say about last week is that it’s over.

Creative: I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. There was some progress made. See below.

Stress Management: Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 25 minutes minimum. Didn’t go as well as I wanted it to so this goes back on the list. Again.

Health:Skin care (hands, feet, and now my face – yes, I bought moisturizer finally), new crud for my hair, and back to eating healthier. We took a trip to the farmer’s market yesterday morning and I’ve got some great veggies to keep me company. Mostly good with this one, though not entirely. I did manage to lose weight last week, which was a damn miracle. Still working on a balance.

Financial: I need to get my spending under control. Seriously. It’s really hard to spend what you just don’t have. I did take the time to go over our budget and print a copy.

Simplify: Even if I don’t manage to get rid of anything, the closet needs some love. This actually happened almost immediately after I posted last week. We didn’t get rid of much but Josh did manage to move most of his winter stuff in his cedar chest to free up some room in there.

I made great progress on the knit shrug last week, as evidenced by the one pic I shared. I need to bind off that sleeve and then start the other half. I had the kid frog the crocheted vest yesterday. It was sad, but it needed to happen. There was no fucking way to salvage that damn thing.

I have yet to get back to the black and white vest and I still haven’t touched the dragon cross stitch. I honestly don’t think there’s any hope in hell of getting this all done in time.

Goals for this week:

Staying out of prison is a legit goal, right?

Creative: I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. This is rolling over from last week, AGAIN. Sweet Ceiling Cat am I tired of this bullshit…

Stress Management: Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 25 minutes minimum.

Health: Back to working on a healthier diet. Tomorrow morning I’m trying the soaked chia seed breakfast again with some tweaks.

Financial: I need to look at the budget again, closer, and see where I can make changes. I want to get things paid off.

Simplify: I actually went through my printed patterns last night and got rid of the ones I knew I wouldn’t ever actually make. I think going through the craft supplies is probably my next stop. I don’t have too much excess of anything, except maybe yarn, but if nothing else it’ll refresh my memory of what I’ve got.

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of10 Major GoalsI want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

This week was really pretty odd. Josh started back to school and was gone three nights. This is good but it always takes a little time to adjust. And evidently one of my meds doesn’t like me getting a whole lot of sun. I have a rather wicked rash that looks horrid. But it was a good week overall.

Creative: I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. I did work some on the crocheted vest though not as consistently as I had wanted to. My plan is to get the black and white vest done today.

Stress Management: Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 25 minutes minimum. I walked four times on the treadmill and I can’t remember if I got 25 minutes in each time or not. I am adjusting the speed and incline so that my workout sessions are a little more intense.

Health: I’m going to focus on my skin this week, primarily my hands and feet. I need to continue to do this so it’s going to carry over. But… I’m also going to get back to eating better. My habits over the weekend kind of went to shit. I want to lose a little weight this week so it’s back to eating salads for me. This was a little hit and miss though I feel like I did really well with the skin stuff. The only night I did do everything was last night and I had a mani/pedi yesterday. The eating better was mostly better. It would have been great if I hadn’t gone for ice cream twice. But I didn’t gain any weight last week and that’s good.

Financial: I want to try to take a long hard look at what I’m doing with my money and where I need to make changes. (other than just not going shopping) Didn’t get to this.

Simplify: I’m not sure right now what makes the most sense to do with this right now. And actually, I may just put it off in favor of spending more time with my 28 day challenge. I did manage to take a small load of stuff to Goodwill. There’s much temptation to dig into the closet again and get rid of a few things, just not sure if that will happen this next week or not.

This isn’t much of an update, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

For some reason I just haven’t been able to stick to the plan I had laid out for myself. I am still making progress, which is good. I also made another vest yesterday that just needs a few tweaks and then I’ll call it finished and that one wasn’t part of the original plan. But it was super quick and very funky. Anyway, I’m going to try to get back to this today.

Goals for this week:

Creative: I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. This is rolling over from last week, AGAIN.

Stress Management: Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 25 minutes minimum. Trying this one AGAIN as well.

Health:Skin care (hands, feet, and now my face – yes, I bought moisturizer finally), new crud for my hair, and back to eating healthier. We took a trip to the farmer’s market yesterday morning and I’ve got some great veggies to keep me company.

Financial: I need to get my spending under control. Seriously.

Simplify: Even if I don’t manage to get rid of anything, the closet needs some love. The shelf above the rod is where Josh and I keep our t-shirts and it’s an utter mess. I’d like to get him to go through his clothes sometime this week, just not sure if it’ll happen.

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of10 Major GoalsI want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

So evidently I didn’t bother to change the title of last week’s post. Wow…

Creative: I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. Well, sort of. I did this for several days, but not every day. I did make some nice progress though.

Stress Management: Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 15 minutes minimum. I lost track of how many times, but I did at least the 5 and often longer than 15 minutes, plus I got a lot of walking in Friday evening at the art festival and then a ton of exercise this weekend in the yard. And this morning I did 25 minutes.

Health: I’m going to focus on my skin this week, primarily my hands and feet. I think I neglect Friday night and Saturday night but that was it. The results are wonderful.

Financial: The bills for all of Josh’s medical stuff will likely start rolling in any day now, so I need to get back to pretending I’m super poor and stop thinking I really need new shoes and more Legos. Um…

Simplify: We did a tiny bit of purging at home this weekend and I brought a few pieces home from my office, mostly because I’m getting a new adjustable desktop thing that will allow me to work standing up and I didn’t figure it would be a good idea to have things hanging on the wall behind that. Anyway, I’d like to keep trying to streamline things a bit. I redid some things on my desk last night to try to help. Visually it was just too much. I think what I’ve got setup now is better, but we’ll see.

Goals for this week:

Creative: I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects. This is rolling over from last week.

Stress Management: Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 25 minutes minimum. Turning it up a little from last week.

Health: I’m going to focus on my skin this week, primarily my hands and feet. I need to continue to do this so it’s going to carry over. But… I’m also going to get back to eating better. My habits over the weekend kind of went to shit. I want to lose a little weight this week so it’s back to eating salads for me.

Financial: I want to try to take a long hard look at what I’m doing with my money and where I need to make changes. (other than just not going shopping)

Simplify: I’m not sure right now what makes the most sense to do with this right now. And actually, I may just put it off in favor of spending more time with my 28 day challenge.

So you’re getting a two-fer today. Yay!

The black and white vest has the outer binding pretty well done. I need to go back and fix a few spots, trim excess fabric, and cut off the threads. I have measured my sample piece so I know where to cut for the arms.

The crocheted vest is getting there. The back is done and I’ve started the arms/collar stuff. I’m guessing that’s not going to take a whole lot longer. I hope.

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of10 Major GoalsI want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

Creative: I will get that black and white vest finished before starting or going back to anything else. Almost. I have the whole outer edge done I just need to do the armholes. Hopefully tomorrow night.

Stress Management: Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 3 sessions of 20 minutes minimum. I lost track of how many times, but it was at least 3. So yay!

Health: I will figure out how to easily add my food intake in the Fitbit tracking app. Oh I figured it out just fine, and learned that I’m really mostly lazy. Doh!

Financial: Friday is payday for both of us so it’ll be time to pay the piper. Until then I need to minimize how much goes out. I did really pretty good with this.

Simplify: One of the tasks on my list is to make another go through my jewelry armoire, so that’s up for this week. Done!

Goals for this week:

Creative: I need to start, and keep, cranking away at my 28 Day Challenge projects.

Stress Management: Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 5 sessions of 15 minutes minimum.

Health: I’m going to focus on my skin this week, primarily my hands and feet. Because I wear sandals so much my heels are trashed. And my hands are usually all dried out and cracked as well. I’ve found some stuff for my heels that I put on before bed and then yesterday I gave in and got a jar of coconut oil. I’ve been having so much trouble again with everything else that I figured it was worth a shot. It absorbed right in and smelled great. So I need to do my hands and feet and every night before bed.

Financial: The bills for all of Josh’s medical stuff will likely start rolling in any day now, so I need to get back to pretending I’m super poor and stop thinking I really need new shoes and more Legos.

Simplify: We did a tiny bit of purging at home this weekend and I brought a few pieces home from my office, mostly because I’m getting a new adjustable desktop thing that will allow me to work standing up and I didn’t figure it would be a good idea to have things hanging on the wall behind that. Anyway, I’d like to keep trying to streamline things a bit.

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of10 Major GoalsI want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

Creative: I need to finish my illuminated letter for my summer drawing challenge. I would also like to spend some time working on either my vest/jacket thingy or the crocheted vest. The illuminated letter got finished and I worked on the crocheted vest. Hopefully today or tomorrow I can get that other vest done.

Stress Management: This week will maybe be pretty stressful. I need to get an appointment for Josh to see a surgeon. (his skin is icky like mine but now it’s getting worse; he’ll have had 4 doc visits in 6 days) The treadmill really does help with this, so that’s my intention. I’ve walked a ton this week and it helped even more than I thought.

Health: I got my Fitbit last week and have been using it faithfully. I finally figure out how to get it track my sleep and I think that’s going to be great. This week I want to focus on using the food diary to keep track of where I’m picking up extra calories I don’t need. I will say I’ve found some really interesting new recipes as a result of my quest to get fit. Huh, yeah… Still didn’t track my food but I did buy a healthy eating cookbook yesterday.

Financial: Given the state of things right now with all of the doctor’s visits, prescriptions, and medical supplies, I’m really just not going to worry about it right now. We’re doing what must be done. Um, win?

Simplify: I’m working to help Mom get all of her music digitized right now and she’s contemplating getting rid of the discs entirely. We’re just a few days from a having a whole new setup for that for her. And I had never really properly gone through her and Dad’s music stash so I’m uploading some of it to my cloud storage. The new setup is a brand new 65″ curved screen smart TV. Her music is all ripped and uploaded to the cloud. The old TV and stereo have been removed from the house. And I swiped everything I wanted.

Goals for this week:

I don’t really feel like I’ve been finishing much of anything lately. I start all kinds of stuff, but there’s not been a lot of finishing, and that shit needs to stop.

Creative: I will get that black and white vest finished before starting or going back to anything else.

Stress Management: Continue walking on the treadmill as often as possible, at least 3 sessions of 20 minutes minimum.

Health: I will figure out how to easily add my food intake in the Fitbit tracking app.

Financial: Friday is payday for both of us so it’ll be time to pay the piper. Until then I need to minimize how much goes out.

Simplify: One of the tasks on my list is to make another go through my jewelry armoire, so that’s up for this week.

If you’re just joining me for the first time, I’ve got a list of10 Major GoalsI want to accomplish before I turn 40 in 2016. That’s what I refer to as my Life Worth Living; it’s a DBT thing. If you don’t want to stay stuck where you’ve been in life, you have to figure out where you want to go and what it would take to truly make your life worth living.

Every week I do a Creative, Stress Management, Health, and Financial goal that tie back to my Building a Life Worth Living project. I’ve also added a Simplifying goal that ties into my plan to declutter my life this year. Bit by bit I’m reaching for the stars.

Update from last week:

I didn’t set any specific goals for myself because I knew the week would be super busy and I sort of figured that it would be best to put my energy into keeping my head above water. That plan paid off. In spite of the technical glitches I did get through the presentation just fine. I was able to spend time on the treadmill, twice. My eating habits were significantly improved.

I lost a pound.

So last week was a total success in my mind.

Goals for this week:

Creative: I need to finish my illuminated letter for my summer drawing challenge. I would also like to spend some time working on either my vest/jacket thingy or the crocheted vest.

Stress Management: This week will maybe be pretty stressful. I need to get an appointment for Josh to see a surgeon. (his skin is icky like mine but now it’s getting worse; he’ll have had 4 doc visits in 6 days) The treadmill really does help with this, so that’s my intention.

Health: I got my Fitbit last week and have been using it faithfully. I finally figure out how to get it track my sleep and I think that’s going to be great. This week I want to focus on using the food diary to keep track of where I’m picking up extra calories I don’t need. I will say I’ve found some really interesting new recipes as a result of my quest to get fit.

Financial: Given the state of things right now with all of the doctor’s visits, prescriptions, and medical supplies, I’m really just not going to worry about it right now. We’re doing what must be done.

Simplify: I’m working to help Mom get all of her music digitized right now and she’s contemplating getting rid of the discs entirely. We’re just a few days from a having a whole new setup for that for her. And I had never really properly gone through her and Dad’s music stash so I’m uploading some of it to my cloud storage.